Over 4,000 people, including 3,200 passengers, have immediately been evacuated to safety, while coast guard officers struggled to rescue 200 others stuck on the ship, AFP news agency reports. Rescue teams used helicopters with spotlights to locate the stranded passengers.
Italian authorities said that they have recovered three bodies from the sea. More deaths have not been confirmed. One of the victims is a 70-year-old man, who did not survive the shock of jumping into icy water from the listing liner.
Among the 30 people reported injured, majority sustained only bruises, but at least two people are said to be in a serious condition, AP news agency reports. According to the Russian Embassy in Rome, over 100 Russian tourists were on board the ship. Interfax news agency cited Russian diplomats as saying that as of yet they have no information on whether any of them were harmed. The first group of Russian tourists saved from the liner has reportedly arrived in Rome.
The 290-meter-long Costa Concordia, on a cruise from Civitavecchia port near Rome to Marseille, hit a sandbar at about 8pm local time near the island of Giglio while the passengers were having dinner. The ship was three hours into the voyage to Savona, its first port of call in northwestern Italy.
"We were having supper when the lights suddenly went out, we heard a boom and a groaning noise, and all the cutlery fell on the floor," passenger Luciano Castro was quoted by ANSA news agency as saying.
Some passengers reportedly jumped off the ship into the water. "It was like a scene from Titanic," passenger Mara Parmegiani was quoted by AFP as saying.
Passengers complained they were not instructed properly on how they should evacuate in case of emergency and said that the evacuation drill was scheduled only for Saturday afternoon.
"It was so unorganized. Our evacuation drill was scheduled for 5pm," American passenger Melissa Goduti was quoted by AP as saying." We had joked ‘what if something had happened today?’"
With the ship tilting too far, many failed to get on life rafts as they simply would not reach the cold water, survivor Christine Hammer told Agence France Presse. The passengers were eventually rescued by boats in the area which came to their aid.
The ship is now reportedly out of danger of sinking, with one of its sides lying on the sandbar it hit. Scuba divers are searching its lower decks to try and locate more passengers.
This is not the first accident involving the Concordia. In 2008, the cruise ship smashed against the Sicilian port’s dock in rough winds, but, says ANSA news agency, nobody was injured in that incident.
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